Want to help the Hudson Valley”™s economy take off?
Fly in and out of Stewart International Airport.
“Realtors talk about location, location, location and that”™ what we”™ve got with Stewart Airport,” said Susan Baer, director of aviation for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, addressing the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce July 21. Noting the nearby interconnections of I-84 and I-87 and other major roads, she said the airport is “ideally located,” to serve the metro New York area.
Convincing the airlines of that fact is an ongoing effort, she said, but noted that the airlines that currently operate passenger service, Delta, Jet Blue and U.S. Air, are all seeing profits from their scheduled service. And she said cargo service is showing promising growth.
But the lingering recession is limiting interest among airlines in bringing new service to airports anywhere. “In our case it”™s timing, timing, timing that is hampering us,” Baer said. The PA once  projected some 7 million passengers a year would use the airport by 2035, a figure that seems inflated in light of the current usage by only about half a million passengers annually. The prerecession 2007 figure was 970,000 passengers.
But even with projections being reconsidered, the PA is using is resources to upgrade the facilities. Baer said $11 million was spent in the last year upgrading and increasing parking capacity at the airport, which was the total of what the previous private management group, NEG of Great Britian, had spent in the seven years it ran the facility.
Some $37 million has been spent by the PA since it took over in November 2007 and she said the agency will continue to make improvements. Tens of millions of dollars in contracts were won by local contractors and she praised Orange County for holding seminars on how to do business with the PA, so that local companies are in position to bid on PA contracts. Dutchess County has a seminar on the topic scheduled for this fall.
Plans are to create a “sustainable airport,” she said, for example, by using energy-efficient LED lighting for airport runway lights and using pervious surface to blacktop the new parking lots. Runoff is captured and stored in tanks that are used to water the landscape around the sprawling airport. The PA also vacuums up glycol used to de-ice planes and has set up a system to ensure de-icing is done only when flights are truly about to take off, to prevent multiple de-icing.  Airlines appreciate these steps, she said, as money savers and for marketing purposes.
“All these sustainable projects are obvious wins for the environment, but are also a great way to market the airport,” she said.
And she said international airlines are beginning to show interest in the facility, which will have the ability to process overseas travel in November.
